the on-going centrally sponsored schemes- Rashtriya Swasthya BimaYojana (RSBY) and the
      Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).
           Its salient features are numerous and keeping in mind the poor and the destitute. It has a
      defined benefit cover of ₹ 5 lakh per family per year. This cover will take care of almost all
      secondary care and most of tertiary care procedures. To ensure that nobody is left out (especially
      women, children and the elderly) there will be no cap on family size and age. The benefit cover
      will also include pre and post-hospitalisation expenses. All pre-existing conditions will be
      covered from day one of the policy. A defined transport allowance per hospitalization will also
      be paid to the beneficiary; portable benefits including cashless benefits from any public/private
      empanelled hospitals across the country.
           Being an entitlement based scheme the entitlement is to be decided on the basis of
      deprivation criteria in the SECC database, female headed households with no adult male member
      between ages 16 to 59, disabled member and no able bodied adult member in the family, SC/ST
      households; and landless households deriving major part of their income from manual casual
      labour will be automatically covered. The payments for treatment will be done on package rate
      (to be defined by the government in advance) basis. The package rates will include all the costs
      associated with treatment. For beneficiaries, it will be a cashless, paper less transaction. Keeping
      in view the state specific requirements, states / UTs will have the flexibility to modify these rates
      within a limited bandwidth.
           One of the core principles of AB-NHPM is co-operative federalism and flexibility to states.
      There is provision to partner the states through co-alliance. This will ensure appropriate
      integration with the existing health insurance / protection schemes of various central ministries /
      departments and state governments (at their own cost). State governments will be allowed to
      expand the Scheme both horizontally and vertically. They can implement through insurance
      company or directly through trust / society or a mixed model. States would need to have State
      Health Agency (SHA) to implement it.
           In order to ensure that the Scheme reaches the intended beneficiaries and other stakeholders,
      a comprehensive media and outreach strategy will be developed, which will, inter alia, include
      print media, electronic media, social media platforms, traditional media, IEC materials and
      outdoor activities. This will lead to increased access to quality health and medication. In
      addition, the unmet needs of the population which remained hidden due to lack of financial
      resources will be catered to.
      Relevant Website: www.ayushmanbharat.co.in
      Mother’s Absolute Affection Programme
           “MAA-Mother’s Absolute Affection” which is an intensified programme was launched in
      2016 in an attempt to bring undiluted focus on promotion of breastfeeding. The goal of the MAA
      programme is to revitalize efforts towards promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding
      practices through health systems to enhance breastfeeding rates. The key components of the
      programme are - awareness generation, promotion of breastfeeding and inter personal
      counselling at community level, skilled support for breastfeeding at delivery points, monitoring
      and award/recognition.
      Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight
           It is a programme to combat diarrhoeal mortality in children with the ultimate aim of zero